Strict family values with clearly defined gender roles and restrictions and past transgressions never make a good combination, especially if these family members are stubborn, and downright unable to see anyone else’s side of the story.

This is what the main character Arabella in Can’t Stop Loving You by Miranda Liasson has to deal with when Roman comes back into her life unexpectedly. He is the said transgression, and with that never good enough in the eyes of Bella’s family, even worse, his family is viewed as direct competition to the family business.

Nothing good can come from this, right? Well, this is a romance story, and we all now that the two main characters will get together, but the ride to get there is a rocky one to say at least.

I did not like the family patriarch at all. Maybe because as a free-spirited person, I could never understand the confines of tradition and over the top pride that tends to come with this type of life, putting honor above personal growth.

The two main characters, on the other hand, are willing to move forward, even if not necessarily with each other at first, AND are willing to work with the family in question, rather than shutting them out completely. For this fact, I give them kudos.

Now, Can’t Stop Loving You is thankfully another book where the rest of the cast is well developed, even if they are not the most charming at times, and I wish all contemporary romance novels would take the time to do that, even if they are not a part of a series. A flat side character can take me out of the plot, and be distracting while a book, like this one, flows. Which makes me connect more emotionally, which in turn brings on the ugly cry tears, but hey, why read a romance novel, if there are no emotions involved right? Oh, you say, what about the love stuff? That is in there too. And it is steamy. Not 50 Shades of Grey crazy, but hot.

I received this novel as an ARC copy for free via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Book Rating:

3.5 out of 5 stars

Book Details:

Title: Can’t Stop Loving You

Author: Miranda Liasson

Publisher: Montlake Romance

Release Date: December 6th, 2016

Book Summary:

When it comes to her heart, Arabella D’Angelo has moved on—even though she still lives in Mirror Lake, Connecticut, a little tourist town with a long memory for mistakes. Ever the dutiful daughter of a cantankerous widower who holds grudges, Bella has spent the past twelve years raising her younger brother and making a name for herself as a successful psychologist. Now, when she isn’t counseling a lonely-hearts club for senior women, she’s humoring her matchmaking girlfriends. Bella resists the romancing of their blind dates, yet her friends hope she’ll fall for a local and scrap plans for a fresh start in Chicago.

Then, just before Bella’s thirtieth birthday, her first love, Roman Spikonos, returns to Mirror Lake. When he moves next door to her family’s garden-center business to run his grandparents’ orchard, it stirs up gossip—and a tempest of passions—just in time for pumpkin harvest. As Roman and Bella once again get caught up in a swirl of desire and heartache, not to mention her overprotective father’s fury, Mirror Lake will soon find out whether the Italian hometown beauty and her unforgettable Greek god can stand a second chance